SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATIONS: DIABETES
Late onset diabetes is one of the most common symptoms of a significant imbalance in the body’s metabolism and is caused by a deficiency in the mineral chromium. Late onset diabetes develops slowly over the years and is recognised as a glucose resistance to the hormone insulin. Insulin’s job is to latch onto glucose in the bloodstream, take it to the cell and push it through the cell wall into the cell where it’s burned to produce energy. Chromium’s job is to bring glucose and insulin together and ensure a secure bond between them. If there is a deficiency in chromium, glucose and insulin float through the blood ignoring each other. Because the cells are now missing out on their major energy source they have to fall back on their second choice energy source, fat.
The blood fat and cholesterol levels rise as these reserves are mobilised for energy production. High fat and cholesterol levels born of this metabolic imbalance don’t respond well to strict anti-cholesterol diets that are designed to treat cholesterol born of overindulgence in saturated fat foods (all processed meats, fried foods, hamburgers, chips, TV dinners, packaged foods, butter). This is because such foods as beef and liver that are considered too high in cholesterol to eat are rich in chromium. Whole wheat also contains chromium. White flour has all its chromium removed in the milling process.
The only other significant source of chromium is brewer’s yeast and there was a time when beer provided plenty of it. Unfortunately these days very few brands of beer are brewed from yeast (they’re now chemically brewed) and a good source of chromium has been lost. Very few people will take brewer’s yeast in its natural form. Is it any wonder that late onset diabetes and high cholesterol are on the rise? Chromium deficiency is on the increase as more and more manufactured foods are replacing natural foods at the dinner table. Imbalances in glucose metabolism are on the increase and account for under-functioning, sluggish livers, lack of mental acuity and intractable over-weight problems as well as late onset diabetes and high cholesterol levels.
Not only dietary deficiencies are involved in overall chromium deficiency. Each pregnancy can cause white blood cell chromium to drop by 50 per cent. The glucose drips that accompany surgical operations cause chromium levels to drop to one-third of normal and if the patient has a postoperative viral infection the end results can be disastrous if chromium supplements are not taken.
Diabetes, like heart attacks, offers very few early warning signs. Most people don’t know they’ve got it till they’ve got it. Intractably high cholesterol levels are seldom recognised as an early diagnostic sign. The gradual loss of tolerance to alcohol from mid-life on is a classic sign of chromium deficiency and impending diabetes.
The removal from the diet of such cholesterol-containing foods as beef and liver doesn’t help reduce cholesterol in those with late onset diabetes or the beginnings of it. In fact it aggravates the condition. These foods are rich in chromium and actually help to lower the cholesterol levels in those whose high cholesterol is linked to chromium deficiency diabetes. I’ve found that those patients of mine whose cholesterol levels are still above normal despite sticking to the standard cholesterol-lowering diet are invariably chromium deficient. It’s amazing how many high cholesterol sufferers fall into this category and how quickly they respond to chromium (plus all the other vitamins and minerals) supplementation. High cholesterol, for most people, is the result of imbalances in the metabolism. Balancing the metabolism with the Metabolism-Balancing Program is the best way to treat it.
Evidence to support the importance of balancing the metabolism with adequate vitamin and mineral intake can be found in the dietary habits of different groups. Eskimos eat a diet high in saturated fats yet rarely have atherosclerosis. Liver is prized among these people, and with good reason, as it contains just about every vitamin and mineral known. It is rich in chromium and all the support vitamins and minerals needed for chromium to be effective. Vegetarians who eat a diet low in saturated fats often develop atherosclerosis. This is not surprising as most vegetarians do not supplement their diet with brewer’s yeast or sugar beet molasses. Both these foods are rich in chromium and the principal support nutrients of iron, selenium, manganese, vitamin B12 and folic acid needed by chromium to complete its metabolic chores. Guinness stout (made in Ireland) is a good source of sugar beet molasses and brewer’s yeast. Australian stout is made from cane molasses which isn’t as nutritious. Don’t overdo it though. If too much stout (alcohol) is consumed the liver will be damaged and the metabolism unbalanced once more.
It’s no coincidence that Grandma took molasses during and after pregnancy and that she mulled stout and gave it to those with infections and those recovering from surgery. The mulling process involves the plunging of a hot poker into the stout to burn off its alcohol content. Her winter/spring remedy of molasses and sulfur powder was a great tonic as well as a cleanser.
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